Our strategy is to make the energy system in Aalborg 100 % fossil free in 2050. Today 80 % of the heat demand in the municipality is covered with district heating – 99 % in the City of Aalborg. We have several heat sources – a central power plant, a cement factory, a waste inceneration plant, waste heat from industry, decentral CHP etc. In the rural area the buildings are individually heated mostly with boilers (oil, gas or wood pellets) or heat pumps.

How

To reach our goal our energy system has to undergo a green transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. We see district heating as an important element in the transition as the system is very flexible and can use various heat sources. Over the next years we expect to expand our district heating areas and we intend to integrate more industrial waste heat combined with large heat storages. At the same time we have focus on energy savings in the building stock, industry etc. as we need to lower the energy demand to be able to reach the goal.

Why

In Aalborg we have been working with strategic energy and heat planning since the late 1980s, but we find it very interesting to be part of the process developing a new planning tool and have the opportunity to share our experiences in the field. In the process we expect to test the tool against our existing plans and afterwards we hope to use the tool in our future planning.

Bistrița

Romania

75,076 PEOPLE

145.47 km2

South Eastern Central Europe

BISTRITA – GREEN CITY

Corina Simon

International relations responsible

European Integration Department

What

Nowadays, Bistrita has a decentralized heating system. 10 years ago, it gave up its old and inefficient centralized system given the very high heat generation costs. In this case, the majority of residents living block of apartments resorted to installing individual heating plants on gas and a few part, those living in private houses are using for their heating solid fuels as wood, briquettes or pellets. On another hand, for Bistrita, renewable energy sources tend to become a logo for the future.

To be concrete, Bistrita has a few relevant objectives in this matter which are stipulated in official documents at local and European level: SEAP 2020 – 20% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2020 compared to 2008, Roadmap 2050: energy consumption restriction increase to 15 MWh/inhabitant/year until 2050 and local production of 50% of renewable energy and Bistrita local development strategy 2010-2030: extend the use of non – conventional energies and the effective increase of their share in the used energy` total mainly related to the heating systems.

How

As a political goal, Bistrita Municipality implemented in 2010 a local program related to the apartments buildings` thermal insulation for reducing the heating energy consumption. For this, in 2016 it was attaint 15% expecting to be over 50% by 2020. The financing came from government through the Operational Regional 60%, the owners` associations 10% and the municipality 30%. In terms of renewable energy, there had been implemented programs at national scale for installing solar panels for thermal water` generation for 330 houses in the city through the “Green House” programme and locally, photovoltaic panels for public common spaces` lighting.

Why

Being part of Hotmaps project will help us plan new energy alternatives to replace the existing heating systems both for residential consumers and for the municipal buildings. More, the open source data base will provide us efficient scenarios for real future planning of heating and cooling systems, a diagnosis analyse leading to concrete measures and necessary investments to reduce the energy consumption.

Donostia / San Sebastián

Spain

186,062 PEOPLE

60,89 km2

South West Europe

The heating system of Donostia / San Sebastián is based in a descentralized gas boilers systems and a small part of electric heating. All fuel oil and coal heating systems were replaced with gas boiler systems in the late eighties and early nineties.

Iker Martinez

Smart & Sectorial Strategy

Fomento de San Sebastian

What

Fomento de Donostia / San Sebastián is developing a District Heating installation based in Biomass and CHP systems in Txomin-Enea neighbour. The District Heating Project will serve over 1.500 dwellings (almost 5.000 inhabitants) and will provide an operation platform for monitoring purposes to citizens. Although very common in many countries, this development is the first of its kind in the Basque Country and therefore a good test for the potentiality of these types of interventions.

How

Donostia / San Sebastián is commited towards a energy efficient and sustainable city promoting the use of renewable energies and sustainable and more efficient heating and cooling systems. The District Heating project is an evidence of this commitment, but Fomento de San Sebastián has developed other importants projects in the city, as three buildings using geothermal energy as the main heating and cooling energy source with solar thermal or aerothermal energy as backing systems, and two buildings using biomass boilers for the heating system.

Fomento de San Sebastián is leading the Smart City strategy of the city coordinating the Smart activities. As part of its Smart strategy, FSS coordinates the REPLICATE Smart Cities Implementation Project (SCC01 HORIZON2020) as well as it has developed an Energy Master Plan in the Urumea Riverside District and a Smart City Plan 2016-2020 under the STEEP project (funded by EU-FP7).

The city has been a part of Local Agenda 21 since 2004 too, and the 2015-2022 Action Plan includes sector-based environmental policies such as the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP), derived from the Covenant of Mayors.

Why

Participating in the Hotmaps project is a good oportunity for Donostia / San Sebastián to start working in heating and cooling plans for the city establishing at the same time energy demand maps in the whole city, and to learn from other cities which had worked deeply in District Heating projects.

The main objectives and expectations for Donostia / San Sebastián in the Hotmaps project will be to develop a first heating plan for the city in a mid-long term on the one hand, to plan potential interventions in the future, and on the other hand to characterise the city from a heating and energy demand point of view, to have a better understanding of the energy systems of the city.

Frankfurt-am-Main

Germany

716,277 PEOPLE

248,3 km2

North West Europe

Cutting by half the total energy demand of the city by 2050.

Paul Fay

Deputy head of Energiereferat and Energy Strategy Office

Energiereferat and Energy Strategy Office

What

District heating in Frankfurt started in the late 19th century. The system is usually operated in connection with CHP-plants. Mainova, the local utility operates 3 plants with a total capacity of 400 MWel and 1GWth, Infraserv, an industrial supplier delivers 270 MWel, 1340 tons of steam and 150 MW cooling capacity to several industrial facilities. Approx. 32 MWel decentralized CHP-Units (smaller 4 MWel) are installed for single use (offices, dwellings, small DH).

In the moment, the mayor district heating networks of Frankfurt are connected. Due to this the share of heat from a waste incineration plant, used in the system, will increase. The new DH-grid which is installed in the city creates the opportunity to connect the existing buildings nearby the new DH grid to the system.

For all new development areas we do an energy concept to find out which energy supply is the most economic and climate friendly one. According to this approx 2 mio square meters of new housing areas were connected to the district heating system in the past.

How

District heating is one of the key pillars of our sustainable energy action plan. This plan has been decided by the local parliament in 2008 and renewed in 2015. Our first priority is to cut in half the total energy demand of the city until 2050 and then cover the rest with renewable energy and/or waste heat. To use large amounts of waste heat (e.g. from a waste incineration plant, industry, datacentres …) you need a distribution system, because it is not useable only locally.

This is why we want to increase the share of district heating in the city.

For the future we see a district heating system which will be “open source technology” – everyone can use the heat and also be a prosumer, delivering surplus energy, e.g. from a solar – thermal plant, to the system. There will not be any longer central DH-Stations but smaller plants and the use of all waste heat sources we can get.

Why

It is quite clear that the main benefit I expect from the HotMaps project is the opportunity to exploit the tool concerning the heat map of the buildings (the municipality as the role of a user for testing it). We will use it for showing the benefits of district heating for the politicians and citizens of the city.

I expect, that the Tool will give us advice concerning the total costs of the process of energy (heat)transition for the City (refurbishing building stock to a certain demand and the costs for covering the remaining heat demand).

The solutions will differ from the local circumstances in the area. So we need different scenarios and sensitivity analysis to make a decision whether to refurbish to “zero” energy demand or a moderate energy refurbishment, because renewable energy is available for a low price (e.g. waste heat on a high temperature level). We need to know where expanding exiting DH system is economically reasonable, where smaller DH solutions should be established and where there is a demand for single-building solutions.

Geneva

Switzerland

210,000 PEOPLE

16 km2

Western Europe

Together, for a City of Geneva 100% renewable in 2050 !

Etienne Favey

Member of the energy office

City of Geneva

What

The City of Geneva joins the movement of European cities for an energy transition. This vision assumes that territorial partners and citizens work together to reach the following goal: “Together, for a City of Geneva 100% renewable in 2050”. Until 2005, energy consumption, on its own buildings, has been reduced by 11%, the part of renewable energy has increased by 4% and the carbon emission has been reduced by 24%. The City has 3 specific aims for 2020: reducing consumption of energy (-17% in 2020), growing part of renewable energy (20% in 2020) and reducing carbon emission (-20% in 2020, already done).

How

To reach the goal of 100% renewable in 2050, the City is making the transition beetwen oil heating to natural gaz and develops renewable energies. The strategy of the City is in line with the cantonal energy policy objectives, that is the 2000 Watts Society without nuclear as a long-term vision. Both work together, with SIG (local energy provider), in order to implement this policy. The Cantonal Master Plan establishes an obligation for municipalities to draw up an Energy Master Plan. This global approach complements the territorial energy concepts realized on any new localized plan study area. Many projects are now realized. Big existing consumers, as sports center or old groups of buildings, are going to make their transition to renewable energies in few years with the project called “Genilac”, a network using the Lake and the Rhône River as energy resources (heating and cooling). As well, the geothermal energy (middle deep) is studying as a solution for new buildings in developing urban area.

Why

We think Hotmap can help us to build a strategy to implement our goal “100% renewable in 2050” in a large scale, on the entire territory of the municipality and not only on our properties. We expect Hotmaps will help us to answer the following question : “Is the City’s territory able to supply enough local energies to implement the vision «100% renewable by 2050», and under which conditions ?”.

For us Hotmaps would be a decision-making tool useful to compare different scenarios and to choose between different resources. As a result, we would like hotmaps help us creating an action plans with an economic evaluation. We would like to use hotmaps in 2018-2019 in order to integrate the new strategy in our Master Plan 2020-2030.

Kerry County

Ireland

147,554 PEOPLE

4,807 km2

North West Europe

First county in Ireland to have a fully operational biomass district heating system.

Sandy McSwiney

Assistant Engineer (Energy Office)

Operation Health & Safety, Kerry County Council

What

The vast majority of heating in Kerry is supplied by individual oil and LPG boilers. There is no natural gas network in Kerry. District Heating is relatively new in Ireland and not very widely used. Kerry was the first county in Ireland to have a fully operational biomass district heating system which was commissioned in 2008. To this end Kerry County Council are to the fore of district heating in Ireland. The plant in Tralee is a 1 MW biomass (woodchip), owned and operated by Kerry County Council.

The council have recently developed, as part of SmartReflex a heat map for Tralee town and plan to build on this information to develop a heat map for the county.

The potential for renewable energy in Kerry is very significant, smart district heating has been identified as a central element of the county’s potential transition to 100% renewable energy supply.

How

Ireland has committed to a National 2020 renewable energy target of 16% of its final energy requirement by 2020. This will include:

40% of electricity will be generated from renewable sources by 2020;

The heating sector is the largest user of energy in Ireland and, 12% will come from renewable sources by 2020;

10% of transport demand will be met by renewable sources by 2020.

As part of this national target Kerry County Council has a target of 33% reduction on the energy consumption by 2020 based on 2006 baseline.

Kerry County Council supports the South West Region Action Plan for Jobs 2015 – 2017 measures which included supporting the investigation and promotion of renewable energy technologies, examination of the potential for renewable energy district heating in towns in the region and promotion of sustainable enterprise led energy initiatives.

Why

The Hotmaps project will allow us to build on the work completed as part of the SmartReflex project. It is hoped that the Hotmaps tool can be used as a decision making tool from a financial, technical and planning perspective and aid in the development of a sustainable community model for Kerry where we will be less reliant on imported fossil fuel and encourage the development of smart flexible heating system for the county.

It will be used to compare and contrast district heating with individual heating systems and show the benefits of district heating for the political decision makers and citizens of the county. It is hoped it will lead to the displacement of an over reliance on imported fossil fuels for heating and a transition to a more sustainable model with the creation of local sustainable employment.

Milton Keynes

United Kingdom

265,000 PEOPLE

89 km2

North West Europe

Milton Keynes’ ambition to be a near zero carbon city by 2050!

Jeremy Draper and Rebecca Turrell-Brown

Senior Practitioners

Sustainability

What

In 2010, Milton Keynes Council formally adopted a Low Carbon Living Strategy & Action Plan with the target of a 40% overall reduction in carbon emissions per capita, from a baseline in 2005, by 2020. In 2014, the Imagine MK 2050 Strategy was adopted, which highlighted the city’s ambition to be a near zero carbon city. Both documents look at ways to implement less carbon intense fuels and better energy efficiency. There is currently not a specific policy for heating and cooling in Milton Keynes, although the MK 2050 strategy highlights the importance of Heating/cooling networks in contributing to a low carbon future for the city.

The key measurement used to track performance against the target is carbon emissions per capita, as reported by official central government statistics. These are broken down by sectors, including Domestic, Industry and transport.

How

Milton Keynes Council will implement politically adopted policies stated in its Low Carbon Living & Imagine MK 2050 Strategies. The timescale for implementation is for a 40% carbon emissions reduction by 2020, with an ambition of a near zero carbon city by 2050.

We will engage and work collaboratively with the private sector, including the possibility of partnerships for the development and expansion of new and existing networks, in line with national planning guidance.

The technical appraisal of the viability of heating and cooling networks is complex and requires the creation of a robust financial case to encourage the investment. We believe that an open and easy to use tool for the technical and financial evaluation of the viability of heating and cooling networks will increase the uptake of these networks in our city.

Why

Milton Keynes Council is enthusiastic in its participation in the HotMaps project to provide a toolbox. The toolbox will support our planning officers in the implementation of both local and national planning policy, when reviewing and providing guidance for potential projects. In addition, the tool would be used to help internal decision making for council led initiatives.

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